Many botanical compounds look impressive on paper but face a practical limitation once swallowed: bioavailability. A compound can be present at a substantial dose yet still reach the bloodstream in relatively small amounts if it dissolves poorly, crosses the intestinal membrane inefficiently or is rapidly metabolised.
Phytosomal delivery is designed to address this gap between dose consumed and dose absorbed.
What is a phytosome?
A phytosomal formulation combines a botanical active with phospholipids, commonly derived from lecithin. Phospholipids have both water-compatible and fat-compatible regions, making them particularly useful for compounds that otherwise struggle to move efficiently from the gastrointestinal environment into biological membranes.
Rather than simply mixing an active ingredient with a fat, phytosomal technology creates an association between the botanical compound and the phospholipid. This can improve its behaviour in gastrointestinal fluids and its interaction with the lipid-rich membranes of intestinal cells. Reviews of phyto-phospholipid complexes describe improvements in factors including solubility, lipid-water partitioning and membrane permeability. (PubMed Central (PMC)
The result is not necessarily a higher dose of the active ingredient. Instead, the objective is to make more of the dose available for absorption.
How much difference can phytosomal delivery make?
There is no universal “phytosome absorption rate”. The improvement depends on the ingredient, the formulation and how bioavailability is measured. Human pharmacokinetic studies therefore tend to compare measures such as Cmax, the highest plasma concentration reached, and AUC, which represents total exposure over time.
Quercetin provides a particularly clear example. Although widely used as a flavonoid supplement, conventional quercetin has relatively limited oral bioavailability.
In a human pharmacokinetic study involving 12 healthy volunteers, 500 mg of unformulated quercetin produced a mean maximum plasma concentration of 10.93 ng/mL. The same 500 mg dose delivered as Quercetin Phytosome produced a Cmax of 223.1 ng/mL: approximately 20 times higher. Total exposure, measured by AUC, was also approximately 20-fold greater. (PubMed Central (PMC)
Perhaps more strikingly, 250 mg of the phytosomal formulation produced a Cmax of 126.35 ng/mL, substantially greater than the level reached following 500 mg of conventional quercetin. (PubMed Central (PMC)
This improved absorption is the principle behind our new Quercetin Phytosome, bringing phytosomal delivery to another botanical ingredient where bioavailability is particularly relevant.
The same principle applies to berberine
Berberine is another compound for which formulation matters. Its conventional oral absorption is limited, making it a strong candidate for specialised delivery systems.
A human pharmacokinetic study of Berberine Phytosome found substantially greater plasma exposure compared with unformulated berberine. When differences in the actual quantity of berberine administered were accounted for, the researchers reported approximately 10-fold greater bioavailability on a molar basis. (PubMed)
That makes phytosomal delivery particularly relevant across ingredients such as Berberine Phytosome and Quercetin Phytosome: the focus shifts from simply asking how many milligrams are present to considering how effectively those milligrams can be delivered.
Bioavailability, not just milligrams
Supplement formulation is increasingly about more than headline dosage. Two products containing the same stated amount of an ingredient can produce very different pharmacokinetic profiles.
Phytosomal technology provides one way of addressing this by pairing selected botanical actives with phospholipids to improve their absorption characteristics. For poorly bioavailable compounds such as quercetin and berberine, human pharmacokinetic research demonstrates that the difference can be substantial making delivery technology an important part of how a formulation should be evaluated, rather than milligram content alone.
